Search results matching tags 'Opinion' and 'Writing'http://sqlblog.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?o=DateDescending&tag=Opinion,Writing&orTags=0Search results matching tags 'Opinion' and 'Writing'en-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP2 (Build: 61129.1)Cloud Evolving, SQL Server Respondinghttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2011/02/02/cloud-evolving-sql-server-responding.aspxWed, 02 Feb 2011 14:49:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:33131KKline
<p><br><a href="http://searchsqlserver.com"><img src="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/TechTarget.gif" class="size-full wp-image-1520" title="TechTarget" alt="" height="104" width="102"></a>
</p>
<p>Brent Ozar (<a href="http://brentozar.com/" title="One of the few, the proud, the MCMs" target="_blank">blog</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/brento" title="Tro-lo-lo with BrentO" target="_blank">twitter</a>) and I did an interview with TechTarget’s Brendan Cournoyer at last summer's Tech-Ed, which as turned into a podcast titled “Cloud efforts advance, SQL Server evolves.” The podcast covers all the major trends at the conference (like BI), virtualization features in Quest’s products (like Spotlight), Brent’s new book and MCM certification, and more.
Here’s a link to hear it, appearing on 6/11/10: <a href="http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/podcast/Cloud-efforts-advance-SQL-Server-evolves">http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/podcast/Cloud-efforts-advance-SQL-Server-evolves.</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div>
<p><span style="border-collapse:separate;font-family:Tahoma;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;orphans:2;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;font-size:medium;"><font face="Arial">Enjoy!</font></span></p>
<p><span style="border-collapse:separate;font-family:Tahoma;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;orphans:2;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;font-size:medium;"><font face="Arial">-Kev</font></span></p>
<div><span style="border-collapse:separate;font-family:Tahoma;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;orphans:2;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;font-size:medium;"><font face="Arial">&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/kekline" target="_blank" title="C'mon. You know you want to!">Twitter at kekline</a></font></span></div></div><div><span style="border-collapse:separate;font-family:Tahoma;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;orphans:2;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;font-size:medium;"><font face="Arial">&nbsp;More content at<span>&nbsp;</span><a href="http://kevinekline.com/">http://KevinEKline.com</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></span></div>Collaboration Nation Call to Action! Calling All SQL Server Bloggers and Twitterershttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2010/03/12/collaboration-nation-call-to-action-calling-all-sql-server-bloggers-and-twitterers.aspxSat, 13 Mar 2010 01:15:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:23317KKline<h2>The Suggestion<br>
</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.mla.org/" target="_blank" title="Lociento hombre - Enlish only...">Modern Language Association</a>
hasn't made up all the new rules yet to govern how one blogger should
reverence, er, reference another in their blog posts.&nbsp; But they
should!&nbsp; Let's get that ball rolling for them.&nbsp; </p><p>I'm not exactly
sure who started this format, but it's my favorite.&nbsp; When writing a
blog post in which you mention another person's blog, let's do it like
this:</p><p style="padding-left:30px;"> "blogger name (blog_hyperlink | twitter_hyperlink)"</p><p>So, we might read a blog post by my friend Kimberly Tripp (<a href="http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/kimberly/" target="_blank" title="She has scuba dived with giant squids. And, no, by that I do NOT mean Paul.">blog</a> | <a href="http://www.twitter.com/KimberlyLTripp" target="_blank" title="It is VERY important not to leave out the &quot;w&quot; when referencing twitter.com. You'll be taken to a VERY different website if you ever leave out that &quot;w&quot;.">twitter</a>) that might look something like this:</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">"...the
Scottish Terrier was so well known in early American society that as
recently as the 1910's, Manhattanite nannies instructed their young
charges to be good else the "Scottish Terrier" would eat them, after a
lengthy session of slobbery nuzzling and years of canine devotion.&nbsp; It
is for this very reason that I've given my Scots/English husband, Paul
Randal (<a href="http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/" target="_blank" title="Looks almost as good in drag as Eddie Izzard!">blog</a> |<a href="http://kevinekline.com/wp-admin/www.twitter.com/PaulRandal" target="_blank" title="A distant relative of Randal Flagg, from &quot;The Stand&quot; and other Steven King books.">twitter</a>),
several variations of the nickname&nbsp; "Scottish terrier", "scotty",
"snotty", and "scotsnots" until such a time as needed for me to roll up
the newspaper, give him a good spanking, and stick his nose in ..."</p><p>Well, you get the point.&nbsp; And didja notice that I worked in not just one, but <b>TWO</b>
entire examples of the blog-reference syntax?!?&nbsp; I can hardly believe
my own craftiness.&nbsp; I went to university for four years to learn that
y'know - and to learn how to funnel beer - but I digress.<br>
</p><p><br></p>
<h2>The Call To Action</h2>
<p>One thing I love about the SQL Server community is our very <i>community-ness</i>.&nbsp;
(I also like the fact that you'll let me invent stupid words on the fly
without too much criticism.)&nbsp; So, let's make the glob, {ah! damned
dyslexia!} , blog reference business even easier <i>by having you</i> (yes, <i><b>YOU</b></i>) post your own blog &amp; twitter links as a comment here.&nbsp; </p><p style="text-align:center;"><i>I
repeat - post a comment <a href="http://kevinekline.com/2010/03/12/collaboration-nation-call-to-action-calling-all-sql-server-bloggers-and-twitterers/" title="A rising tide floats all boats, or something like that..." target="_blank">here</a> containing your name, blog (with embedded
hyperlink to your blog), and twitter (with embedded hyperlink to my
twitter, er, YOUR twitter account).&nbsp; </i></p><p>I'll then repost a brand new shiny article with a full compendium to <i>everyone's</i> blog &amp; twitter hyperlinks (except Brent Ozar's (<a href="http://brentozar.com/" target="_blank" title="Just kidding, Brent! You know I love ya man!">blog</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/brento" target="_blank" title="Can we call him &quot;Borat-ozar&quot;?">twitter</a>)
) which you can save to some obscure cranny of Outlook or WordPerfect
to call up at a moments notice when the urge to both blog and reference
other bloggers strikes you.</p><p>Thanks and looking forward to seeing your blog reference soon!</p><p>-Kev</p><p>-Twitter @kekline<br></p><p><br></p><p style="padding-left:30px;"><br></p><p></p><div id="refHTML"></div>Want Spy Novel Twists in a True IT Journalism Story? Read this...http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2010/02/23/want-spy-novel-twists-in-a-true-it-journalism-story-read-this.aspxTue, 23 Feb 2010 22:48:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:22589KKline<div class="mceTemp"><a href="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/reporter-06.jpg"><img src="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/reporter-06-300x200.jpg" alt="" title="reporter 06" class="size-medium wp-image-452" width="300" height="200"></a><br>David Straithairn as the great Edward R. Murrow in the 2005 film "Good Night and Good Luck"</div><p>Journalists are important.&nbsp; In my opinion, they're <i>very important</i>.
The best journalists, like Old Testament prophets, speak truth to power
and reveal the ugly dirt behind the pretty and public veneer of
society.&nbsp; Their very presence foils corruption or, at least, helps
reveal it, punish it, and make it dive for deeper waters else go
extinct.&nbsp; It was for this reason that Thomas Jefferson famously wrote:</p><p><span><i>"The
basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very
first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to
decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or
newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to
prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive
those papers and be capable of reading them." --Thomas Jefferson to
Edward Carrington, 1787. ME 6:57</i></span></p><p>(I'm red-green color
blind, so forgive me if that quote is purple or some weird color like
that.&nbsp; I just meant for it to be navy blue. But I digress...)<br></p><p>Sadly,
the last couple decades have seen the blurring of journalism and
entertainment.&nbsp; So much so that shock jocks now get byline billing as
journalists and real journalists, in the search for better ratings and
higher SEO rank, debase themselves and their content by injecting shock
appeal.&nbsp; (This trend isn't a new thing, btw.&nbsp; Historically, journalism
has had other nadirs in the past, the most prominent being the era of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism" target="_blank" title="Pulitzer versus Hearst in a race to the bottom, kind'a like the chili I had for lunch.">yellow journalism</a>
spanning the 1880's to the early 1900's.)&nbsp; Of course, we see this every
day on our television and hear it all the time on the radio - have any
radio stations on your car tuner that you <i>always</i> skip?&nbsp; But I'd
hardly expect this sort of thing to insinuate itself into an industry
news niche like IT journalism.&nbsp; I mean, c'mon!&nbsp; IT is about information
after all, and any distortion should surely become apparent in due time.<br></p><p>(Full disclosure:&nbsp; I've never been a journalist, but I do write a couple magazine columns - one, a technical column, for <a href="http://www.sqlmag.com/authors/index.cfm?authorid=718" target="_blank" title="The Language is pronounced &quot;S-Q-L&quot;, the Microsoft product is pronounced &quot;Sequel Server&quot;"><i>SQL Server Magazine</i></a> and one, an opinion column, for <a href="http://www.dbta.com/Authors/3536-Kevin-Kline.htm" target="_blank" title="D to the B to the T to the A"><i>Database Trends &amp; Applications</i></a>.)<br></p>
<div class="mceTemp"><a href="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/reporter-05.jpg"><img src="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/reporter-05-300x199.jpg" alt="" title="reporter 05" class="size-medium wp-image-453" width="300" height="199"></a><br>The News Team the Revealed the Evils of McCarthyism in the 2005 film "Good Night and Good Luck"</div>
<h2>So I can only begin to explain how jolted I was by <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=31024&amp;tag=trunk;content" target="_blank" title="ZDNet, but nothing on Zebras">this news story</a> released by ZDNet.&nbsp; </h2><p>The
team at ZDNet has done some crackerjack investigative reporting to
reveal that an often quoted "Windows Performance Expert" and CTO of a
performance management and monitoring products company, Craig Barth, is
in fact a fabrication by a well-known reporter and blogger, Randall
Kennedy.&nbsp; Both personalities frequently disparaged <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/" target="_blank" title="They Made MS-BOB. I bet their proud.">Microsoft </a>(not that Microsoft isn't an easy target, they made <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_bob" target="_blank" title="Innovation...heard of it?">BOB</a>
after all) and, in some cases, evidently created their own aggregate
data, which was then used to identify individuals and broach privacy
standards.&nbsp; Kennedy goes on to say that he did this with full
endorsement of the companies he wrote for, and I quote "<span>They didn't want to lose 2+ million page views per year, which is what the shock jock persona they developed for me delivered.</span>"</p><p>Journalists, <i>and the managers of journalists</i>,
should take this as a wake up call.&nbsp; When you're a trusted person, that
trust is often your most valuable asset.&nbsp; I know that the entire media
industry is under assault and its revenues are shrinking.&nbsp; But I hope
that this has the positive side-effect of reminding everyone involved
that quality and credibility are invaluable.&nbsp; Said another way, it's
impossible to place a real dollar value on strong ethics, credibility
and trustworthiness, except to know that <b><i>it's worth a lot</i></b>.&nbsp; (Someone remind Toyota and the Wall Street bankers of that too, while we're at it.)</p><p>Thoughts?</p><p>Thanks for reading,</p><p>-Kev</p><p>-Twitter @kekline<br></p><p></p><div id="refHTML"></div>[OT] When Does Media Content -Truly- Become Public Domain?http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2010/01/20/ot-when-does-media-content-truly-become-public-domain.aspxThu, 21 Jan 2010 01:28:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:21293KKlineI've always been intrigued by our process for allowing creative
content, such as songs or movies, to become public domain. A common
usage for public domain might be to create a short family video and,
seeking a peppy and familiar piece of background music, you settle on
"The Entertainer", by Scott Joplin. (If you've never heard of it, <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http://s0.ilike.com/play%23Scott%2BJoplin:The%2BEntertainer:38057:s42359279.11149306.20076138.0.2.65%252Cstd_54ef37dbf98949c483a43cc28aee7518&amp;ei=nqpXS7zxD4a1tgeoo4CoDw&amp;sa=X&amp;oi=music_play_track&amp;resnum=1&amp;ct=result&amp;cd=2&amp;ved=0CAoQ0wQoADAA&amp;usg=AFQjCNFyN8nAc8huq2AUHJHMAcHDvlDXUA">listen here</a>.
You'll recognize it.)&nbsp; Since the music is past the 75 year limit of
copyright protection, it is now public domain - meaning that you don't
have to pay or seek permission to use it for your family home video.<br>
<br>
Now, it seems that many old media companies are deliberately destroying
great old celluloid video footage rather than allow it to become public
domain.&nbsp; Of course, there's plenty of old TV programming that don't
have a single living fan, but we're talkin' about classics here like
Jack Benny and the BBC's Dr Who.&nbsp; Read <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20100118/1050427800.shtml">this news story</a> and <a href="http://themoderatevoice.com/59065/killing-comedic-heritage-cbs-reportedly-seals-some-classic-jack-benny-show-comedy-masters/">this one</a> for an example.<br>
<br>
So, what do you think? Is this a misuse of private ownership of aging
IP?&nbsp; Is this just another example of old media putting their finger in
the dike of digital entertainment for the sake of a dying business
model?<br>
<br>
I find this to be particularly ironic since old media companies are the
first to exploit public domain material for their own uses. Case in
point, what's the last Disney animated film you've seen (no, not Pixar
- Disney) that wasn't adapted from an age old story?<br>
<br>
Thoughts?<br>
<br>
-Kevin<br>
<br>
Twitter @kekline<br>
More content at http://KevinEKline.com<div id="refHTML"></div>